The Day Will Not Be Far When the New Year Spectacular Tickets Are Hard to Come By

A frequent patron of the Wagner Festival talks about the NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular

26 March 2007

I am a frequent patron of the Wagner Festspiele (Wagner Festival) at the Wagner Festspielhaus (or festival opera house), which seats 1,925 people. There are thirty performances running annually. On the opening day, nearly 50 percent of the audience are celebrities of German mainstream society. It is rumoured that 50,000 more people line up for tickets to the Wagner Festival than seats are available. Some people have waited in line yearly for eleven years for a ticket. Every year I run into such people. The audience often complains about how difficult it is to get a ticket. After reading reports about the audience's reviews of NTDTV Global Chinese New Year Spectacular touring performances around the world, I think that it will become equally difficult to obtain tickets for the Spectacular in the future, and may even surpass the number of people who want to see the Wagner Festival. Why do I say this?

An elderly lady from Paris bought a ticket to see the Spectacular a second time after she saw the opening performance in Paris. After she watched the show twice in Paris, she anxiously looked for its touring schedule. When she learnt that there would be two shows in Berlin, she immediately decided to fly to Berlin and bought tickets for both shows. She told an NTDTV staff member in Germany who did not speak French excitedly that the music touched deep in her heart and every program appealed to her. She used body language to describe who the music penetrates to her heart and through her body.

But would an audience member from Munich travel to Berlin for the Spectacular? It is more than 500 km (311 mi.) from Munich to Berlin! According to a Spectacular hostess, a lady in her thirties and her husband travelled all the way from Munich to Berlin to see the show. The woman told her that her mother is from Asia and she has been interested in things related to Asia since she was little. When she saw a poster in Munich about the Spectacular show in Berlin, she decided to come see the show with her husband.

Let us not forget that these stories happened in the very first year the Spectacular ever toured Germany. These two audience members had only heard about or found out about the Spectacular by chance the first time. Imagine what will happen in a few years?

I heard that although most of the programs for the Spectacular in NY are shown in other cities, only New York City's Spectacular showed the full program. Also, apparently, NTDTV will not release a DVD this year, because it is planning to sign long-term commercial contracts with large theatres in the future. I became anxious when I heard that I would not be able to buy a DVD this year. I dropped everything, not matter how important, and flew to New York from Germany, so I could watch the show. There was also Tianyin Orchestra's maiden show at the Spectacular. Each program deeply touched my heart. Was it a surprise or an opportunity to ponder? By the end of the show, I was completely mesmerised and lost in the show. I wanted more. What is spiritual enjoyment? Spending $180 for the best seat and flying to see a show is a spiritual enjoyment. It is about longing for high-quality art and telling myself, "It's well worth it!" After I watched the show, I knew that it was truly worth the trip. There is nothing more beautiful or more worthwhile than this. That's how I felt. The seating capacity at Radio City in New York is 6,000. It is three times more than the Wagner Festival house seating capacity.

The day will not be far when audiences around the world will fly to see the NTDTV production of the Chinese New Year Spectacular, just like people are flying to Germany to see the Wagner Festival and praise Wagner's operas. (Of course, it cannot be more inappropriate to compare the Wagner Festival to the Spectacular. But Wagner Festival is so famous that it does not need any advertisement. For close to 100 years, people waited outside the Festival House to purchase tickets. People who get the tickets are filled with pride. Even when the tickets are sold out, there are still people from around the world staying up in their sleeping bags in front of the theatre, waiting for people to return their ticket. Hence, I am showing you that people may have to do the same to get tickets for the Spectacular in coming years.) The day will not be far when people will have to wait in line every year for 11 years to get tickets for the Spectacular. The day will not be far when people who obtain tickets for the Spectacular will call their family to boast that they got a ticket. The day will not be far when people from around the world and proudly purchase the Spectacular memorabilia or proudly send a show-off postcard from the post office in front of the theatre hosting the Spectacular. Once people have a deeper understanding about the meaning of the Spectacular, the day will not be far when the Spectacular surpasses the status of the Wagner Festival.

The box office for the Wagner Festival is open all year round. There are Friends of the Wagner Association in many countries around the world. For example, someone from London told me that their association told them that they had obtained only three tickets for the Wagner Festival in 2006 and that they had to draw lots to determine who would get a ticket.

Of course, it took more than ten years to build the Wagner Festival House. It is unlikely that NTDTV will spend ten years to build a theatre. Yet, it is a practical idea to have an advanced ticket sales office. As long as the global tour schedule and theatres are finalised, the box offices around the world may start selling tickets in advance. Once you have read all the reports and audience's reviews about the NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular, you will be just as confident that the day will not be far.

After watching the show, many who were in the audience spread the news to the world about the beauty of the Spectacular. Presently many people are asking about the Spectacular in 2008. There are such people in the world who prefer buying the tickets a year in advance so that they may rest assured for the rest of the year. After the Berlin shows, many people called the ticket hot-line and asked what other cities the Spectacular would tour, whether the Spectacular would tour Germany next year, what time and location the Spectacular would be presented in Germany, and so on.

About two months ago when the NTDTV Holiday Wonders show had just ended, an English newspaper in New York said that if people wish to enjoy magnificent costumes, outstanding dance performances, beautiful music, vocal performance and magnificent stage background in the same show or look for the world's most elegant art, they will first think about and recommend the NTDTV production of such shows.

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